Organic and Organomineral Fertilizers for Sustainable and Circular Agriculture—2nd Edition

A Special Issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395) belonging to the section "Soil and Plant Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2027 | Viewed by 2695

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Guest Editor
Departamento de Educação, Universidade do Estado da Bahia, Campus XIV, Conceição do Coité 41150-000, Bahia, Brazil
Interests: soil; soil analysis; fertilizers; soil fertility; plant nutrition; soil and water conservation; crop production; climate change and agriculture conservation; agriculture; crop management
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Instituto de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Uberlandia, Brazil
Interests: vegetables; medicinal plants; ornamental plants; landscaping; fruit growing; plant physiology; plant nutrition; special fertilizers; biostimulants; biofertilizers; plant regulators
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Previously, we successfully published the first Special Issue on the topic of organic fertilizers and included several important works. To more widely apply the research in this field, we propose a second volume and welcome all scholars to submit their manuscripts.

Farmers have used animal and vegetable organic residues for several years as a primary source of nutrients to fertilize agricultural soils. However, with the development of mineral fertilizers, the use of organic residues has reduced.

In recent years, the use of organic and organomineral fertilizers has increased due to high organic residue production in response to the growing pressures of conforming to environmental quality standards. In addition, mineral fertilizers present high costs and demand, which is associated with low efficiency, thereby impacting production costs and the environment.

Organic and organomineral fertilizers have been defined as products resulting from the physical mixture or combination of mineral and organic (organomineral fertilizers) or just organic (organic fertilizers) components, with high contents of organic carbon, cation-exchange capacity, and nutrients. These organic matrices can originate from different sources (i.e., animal manure, coffee straws, and filter cakes) and are used to increase nutrient use efficiency and fertilizer demand.

Therefore, organic and organomineral fertilizers have been presented as alternatives to increase nutrient use efficiency, reduce the fertilizer demand with great potential for optimizing the use of by-products, and promote sustainable and socially acceptable alternatives to achieve a circular economy.

This Special Issue will once again focus on “Organic and Organomineral Fertilizers for a Sustainable and Circular Agriculture”. The submission of original research articles, review articles, communications, letters, and opinions providing innovative insights into related topics are welcome for review.

Dr. Risely Ferraz Almeida
Dr. Roberta Camargos de Oliveira
Prof. Dr. Teodor Rusu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • soil management
  • nutrient availability
  • nutrient use efficiency
  • microbial communities
  • fertilization strategies
  • fertilizer production
  • composting
  • organic residues
  • sustainable agriculture
  • circular agriculture

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1727 KB  
Article
Agro-Circular Economy: Produced Volume and Rates of Sisal Residues (Pulp and Broken Fiber) on Development of Sisal Seedlings in Bahia/Brazil
by Risely Ferraz-Almeida, Maíne Alves dos Santos, Joane Lima Oliveira and Valmir Freitas de Almeida
Agronomy 2026, 16(18), 1748; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16181748 - 8 Sep 2026
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Abstract
During sisal defibration, large amounts of residues are produced, classified as liquid (green juice) and solid (pulp/mucilage and broken fiber). Pulp/mucilage and broken fiber have been used for sisal fertilization by farmers in Brazil, but no studies have demonstrated the rates of solid [...] Read more.
During sisal defibration, large amounts of residues are produced, classified as liquid (green juice) and solid (pulp/mucilage and broken fiber). Pulp/mucilage and broken fiber have been used for sisal fertilization by farmers in Brazil, but no studies have demonstrated the rates of solid residues needed to improve sisal production. The study demonstrated the effects of sisal residues (pulp and broken fiber) on the development of sisal seedlings in the region of Conceição do Coité, Bahia, Brazil, based on agro-circular economy principles. The study was developed using two scientific methods: (i) modeling of sisal residue production (pulp and broken fiber) in Bahia/Brazil, during recent years (2000–2024) and (ii) an outdoor pot experiment testing rates of dried sisal residue (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 L plant−1 of a mixture of pulp and broken fiber) on the development of sisal seedlings. Results showed that over the last decades, the annual residue production of pulp and broken fiber was 4.3 million tons year−1, with an accumulated production of 107.8 million tons between 2000 and 2024. The rates of sisal residues promoted the development of plants, increasing plant weight (from 29.7 to 247.4 g/plant), shoot (from 4.3 to 22.4 g/plant), and root (from 25.4 to 225.0 g/plant). Sisal seedlings produced more roots than shoots with applications of residues. The sisal residues fitted a linear response, indicating that increasing rates promoted sisal seedling growth. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the sisal sector produces a great volume of solid residues that can be used for sisal planting, promoting higher initial plant development and an agro-circular economy in Bahia, Brazil. Future studies could include data on sisal fertilization, circularity index, nutrient cycling, carbon footprint, water footprint, and benefits. Future studies should also test application rates across different soils, regions, temperatures, times, and other variations to increase the efficiency of residue use. Full article
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19 pages, 6675 KB  
Article
Silicate Agrominerals Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Enhance Soil Carbon in Tropical Pasture of the Brazilian Cerrado
by Marcos Vinícius Araujo dos Santos, Alexsandra Duarte de Oliveira, Cícero Célio de Figueiredo, João Paulo Guimarães Soares, Giuliano Marchi, Thayná Xavier Santana, Altair César Moreira de Andrade, Daphne Heloísa de Freitas Muniz, José Ferreira Lustosa Filho, Arminda Moreira de Carvalho, Marcos Aurélio Carolino de Sá and Éder de Souza Martins
Agronomy 2026, 16(2), 138; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16020138 - 6 Jan 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1582
Abstract
The mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in livestock farming is one of the main challenges for agriculture in the Cerrado biome. Among promising practices, the use of soil remineralizers (REM) stands out as a sustainable and complementary alternative to conventional fertilizers. This study [...] Read more.
The mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in livestock farming is one of the main challenges for agriculture in the Cerrado biome. Among promising practices, the use of soil remineralizers (REM) stands out as a sustainable and complementary alternative to conventional fertilizers. This study evaluated the effects of applying REM derived from basalt and biotite schist on emissions of N2O, CO2 and CH4, the global warming potential (GWP), as well as on soil carbon and nitrogen in Urochloa brizantha cv. BRS Paiaguás pasture. The experiment was conducted in randomized blocks with five treatments (control, KCl, basalt 8.33 Mg ha−1, basalt 40 Mg ha−1, and biotite schist 151 Mg ha−1). Results indicated that KCl and high-dose basalt (40 Mg ha−1) promoted greater accumulated N2O emissions and higher GWP values. In contrast, biotite schist reduced N2O emissions and showed the lowest GWP (81.67 kg CO2 eq. ha−1), while basalt at a moderate dose (8.33 Mg ha−1) increased soil C and N stocks. It is concluded that soil remineralizers, especially those derived from biotite schist, represent viable alternatives to reduce environmental impacts and promote the sustainability of tropical agricultural systems in Cerrado biome. Full article
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